[Honey’s Anime Interview] Uncover the creative process and inspiration behind anime merchandise with Boomslank’s Justin Anyanwu

For those of you who are new to Boomslank, can you tell us a little about yourself and share what you do?

My brother and I grew up watching anime in the late 90s and early 2000s. It has always bothered us. My younger brother uses his love of anime to hone his artistic skills. I had the opportunity to watch him grow and realize we had an opportunity to use his skills to create something great. At the time, we noticed that the brand at the time only sold merchandise decorated with licensed materials. We wanted to do something different. We wanted to create a brand that appealed to anime, but also brought something original to the table.

Your incredible website has gradually expanded over the past few years and now offers not only phone cases, but also apparel, banners, and a variety of other merchandise. What are your favorite products to create?

We recently launched hoodies and bomber jackets. I have to say, our bomber jacket is by far our favorite product. Our Zodiac Collection hoodies are also popular. Our fans love them. We hope to be able to release more; we’re just getting started with that. We want to get the logistics right.

We visit many of your suppliers at various conferences. Have you had success as you expanded your merchandise to larger events like Comic-Con and similar events?

We hope to attend Comic-Con one day. At the same time, we also attended other conferences such as Anime Expo, DragonCon, and Animazement (conveniently located in our backyard in North Carolina). The conference was so successful for us that we actually wanted to find a way to expand our conference business. These conventions allow us to meet our fans face to face, chat with them, and make sales at the same time!

As soon as people click on your page, they’ll see that you really like mecha anime, especially the Gundam series. What’s the story behind your love for these anime and your call to make them the core of your business?

The first anime series we watched and instantly fell in love with was Shin Wing Gundam – which I think truly defined anime for us. This is our first introduction to the Gundam series, and to be honest, it’s the first time we’ve seen a rather beautifully designed giant robot in a comic. It really impressed us and you can see it inspired a lot of our designs. Mechas represent a combination of our fascination with cool weapons, human ingenuity, and artistic expression.

Can you briefly walk us through the creative process, from initial drafts to the final product ready for sale?

Often, it begins with an inspiration for David, often in the form of a scene in his head—a snippet of a story that he hopes to one day flesh out. He sketches the “scene” on paper, then the rough sketch is scanned and converted into line art on a tablet. It takes about a month or more to complete the detailed art and color. Once the artwork is complete, he shares it with the rest of us for feedback. If no further improvements are suggested, we contact our manufacturer to manufacture the product required for the design. At the same time, we promote the product to our fans through social media and email groups. Depending on the product, it should be ready within a month or two.

Would you like to one day work with anime and manga creators to offer licensed products, or do you find joy in your own designs?

This is a great honor for our artist brother David. He would probably be ecstatic to be able to work with someone like Makoto Shinkai. I can’t imagine a greater honor for him.

Of all the products you offer, are there any specific designs that you like best? If so, can you tell us why these designs hold a special place for you?

Did you ever anticipate that Boomslank would experience the level of growth it has experienced?

Actually it is! Interestingly, we still have a long way to go. My brother and I are very focused on growing the brand, so we utilize a third-party fulfillment service to handle shipping of orders since volume has increased significantly. This allows us to focus on content, design and partnership opportunities.

Can you share your plans for the coming months/years?

We are currently promoting our new hoodies that just launched on September 8th. Here’s a video about it!

Before we wrap up the interview, is there anything you’d like to say to our readers and your fans?

Just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to read about us. To our fans, thank you for your continued support. We want to continue creating items you love.